There is a lot of discussion in the media about “Home Working” as though this concept is new! Agreed the government has extended the rights of employees to work flexibly, but I have been either working from home on a casual trust basis to being officially being based from home, getting on for 25 years ago. The main objection to home based working is the lack of strength and imagination of management. Managers need to measure by “output” not “input”. Just because a manager can see an employee at a desk working at a PC doesn’t mean they are doing anything constructive! How many of us have seen games of Solitaire or a holiday web site across the office at an inattentive employee? Measure by output and it doesn’t matter where or when a team member actually performs the task in hand.

Clearly home working is not suitable for all occupations, or all employees, or all the time. There are huge benefits to be gained by employers and employees alike. Most of us know what they are, and there are too many to go into here. However I did hear on BBC Radio 4 a comment that in winter you have to heat the house, therefore cancelling out the advantage of not using road fuel! What rubbish! When I am in the house by myself in winter I don’t heat the whole house, I just heat my study! Come on everyone think positively, millions of people work from home for some or all of the working week, and have done so for years. To be honest the main problem with home-working is having the discipline NOT to go back to your desk all the time to “just check this or that” or “just finish that …….” at the end of the working day.

We have the broadband service in the vast majority of the country, ensuring that this is just not an issue. If you checked the capability previously and thought the technology made it impractical, look again, and contact a professional for advice.

Food for thought

It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s also unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money; that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it’s well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough money to pay for something better

John Ruskin February 1819 – January 1900